Being a designer for a large company naturally has its “easy” side. The company’s design department is divided into many different departments, including design, production, sales planning, and sales. Even the design department is divided into “creative design”, “art design” and “technical design”. Among them, the “creative designer” is what we usually call “designer”, responsible for the overall and initial style design of a season; the other two types of designers are auxiliary to the first, one is responsible for the printing or partial printing design of the clothing, and the other is responsible for turning the creative design into samples. The other two types of designers support the first one, one is responsible for printing or partial printing of the garment, and the other is responsible for turning the creative sketches of the designers into samples.
Because there is such a fine division of labor, the most obvious difference between the creative designers in a large company and a small company is that they don’t have to operate a computer. There are always older, old-school designers in larger firms with a longer history, and they often don’t even have computers in their offices. Designers do not even need good drawing skills, my graduation work mentor, Crabtree & Evelyn’s main design Martha is basically can not draw, sketching like a schoolboy homework as a board, but can express her design ideas, enough to communicate with the technical staff. The company’s designers don’t need to get involved in the technical details of patterning, cutting, sewing, etc., but it’s enough to pick out the flaws and suggest changes after the samples come out.
However, to be honest, old-school designers are often technically fluent, used to designing and patterning all in one, and doing the fitting themselves after the samples are turned. This used to be their strong point of survival, but by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, these good skills were becoming more and more “useless”, and some of them were not useful at all, and they were even prone to the resentment of the technical departments, who thought they were too much in charge. I could use an industrial sewing machine myself, and once when I was in a hurry, a dozen turners couldn’t spare any time, so I couldn’t wait and took on the job myself. I’ve never touched their machines since then, and I’ve since heard that they’re all union members, and taking union jobs can even lead to big trouble.
The company’s top executives also discouraged designers from “crossing the line,” believing that the division of labor was the ideal “creative” environment for designers, and that designers should be grateful for this “privilege. “As long as they can cooperate well with the technical department and create the samples smoothly, all will be happy. After the samples enter the showroom, the design director will often come to urge the designer to hurry out to shop, see exhibitions, find inspiration, and quickly move on to the next design cycle. As for your clothes who to sell, how to sell, sell to whom, it is not the designer should worry about things. The designer will have to worry a lot if it doesn’t sell, or he really doesn’t have to worry at all.
So it’s very hard for designers who are used to being in a big company to adapt to a small company where they have to fight and kick their own way.